Running is ranked as one of the top 3 activities that adolescents (10-19 year olds) partake in. There is a lot known about running related injuries in adults, but unfortunately often this research is then applied to running injuries in adolescents. Yet they are very different to adults and need to be treated as a specialist subgroup.
One of the problems is that “maturation” needs to be considered rather than age. You can have two 14 year old’s whose bodies are at two very different points of development – specific questioning will help your professional gauge where they are at in this maturation process - the outcome of this can mean quite different management.
Overuse injuries rank highly in running injuries in adolescents, particularly to the bone and soft tissues (eg tendinopathies) in this age group. Boys and girls can differ slightly. Girls can be more prone to bone stress related injuries – image and weight can put external pressures on girls and increased training loads in an undernutritioned state can cause major issues.
A key issue in this age-group can be growth. Growth spurts mean bigger, heavier, longer bones.